It’s like every time I turn around, there’s a new taco shop in some gentrified corner of the DMV. Maybe Trump’s prediction about taco trucks was actually correct? Maybe now we’re just at a point at which we’re openly mocking his assertion from 4+ years ago by ironically flooding the market with tacos? Whatever the reason, I am here for it.
It was so nice out yesterday that I regretted ordering pickup instead of opting to sit on the expansive patio outside La Cosecha market (or, as I like to call it, “Mercado de la Unión”). The food was ready right on time, and as I grabbed the bag, I was immediately struck by the lightness of it. We made it home despite an intense amount of traffic. No, they hadn’t forgotten anything. It just wasn’t much food.
I ordered three tacos: al pastor, lamb barbacoa, and pollo.
Las Gemelas’s description online describes these as coming on 13 cm tortillas, and they are absolutely using metric measurements to confuse us. Everyone knows that Americans have no idea how big 13 cm is! They were only single-wrapped, and these tortillas were beautiful and clearly made in-house, but that meant that they were not super sturdy, and the pollo one fell apart immediately. Of these three, the barbacoa was far and away the winner. It was really smoky and richly lamb-y. On the other hand, the other two were just kind of boring and dry.
For [mostly] my husband, I had ordered the tlayuda with chorizo. It’s advertised as coming on a 30 cm tortilla, so you know that’s…twice as big as the taco tortillas! It was stuffed with cabbage and other veggies, so it felt more like a meal, but the chorizo was a huge disappointment. What I tasted of it was lacking the heat and flavor of chorizo and was something vaguely sweet, more akin to American breakfast sausage.
For $3, I also got a small side-order of escabeche (pickled veggies), and I was glad for having something else go to in my belly, but it wasn’t much and was still kinda sad.
Price: This was close to $40! FORTY. DOLLARS. Those sad-ass tacos were $5 each!
Bottom line: A for concept, C for implementation. With taco trucks on basically every corner, you can do better than this.
Ward Five Foodie 